CONNECTING THE DOTS

PART 39: OVERPOPULATION IN 21ST CENTURY AMERICA—OVERSHOOT

Part 39: Running our planet into the dirt

“Signs of stress on the world’s principle biological systems—forests,
fisheries, grasslands, and croplands—indicate that in many places these systems
have already reached the breaking point. Expecting these systems to withstand a
tripling or quadrupling of population pressures defies ecological reality.” Lester Brown, www.earth-policy.org

The United States today,
with 312 million rapacious consumers, carbon exhausters and water wasters,
overwhelms and over rides just about every environmental marker on the planet. In combination with China, India and other
overpopulated countries—humans exceed the Earth’s carrying capacity on multiple
levels. Symptom erupt everywhere on the
planet: Haiti’s starving and diseased population; 1 billion humans cannot
procure clean water daily; 3.1 billion humans subsist on less than $2.00 per
day; 18 million humans starve to death annually; 1,000 children die daily in
India from diarrhea, dysentery and other water borne diseases; 80 to 100
species suffer extinction daily planet-wide from human encroachment on their
habitat and the list grows.

The
United States expects to add an additional 100 million within 25 years and
double its current population to 600 million within 70 years. Do we allow the future to ‘happen to us’ or
do we change it to design it toward sustainability and quality of life!

In one of the most
compelling books of the last 30 years, Overshoot by Dr. William Catton, we
discover that humanity exceeds the carrying capacity of its planet at its
peril. Stewart Udall in the foreword
said, “In a future that is unavoidable as it will be unwelcome, survival and
sanity may depend upon our ability to cherish rather than disparage the concept
of human dignity. It is axiomatic that we are in no way protected from the
consequences of our actions by remaining confused about the ecological meaning
of our humanness, ignorant of ecological processes, and unmindful of the
ecological aspects of history. I have
tried to show the real nature of humanity’s predicament not because understanding
its nature will enable us to escape it, but because if we do not understand it,
we shall continue to act and react in ways that make it worse.”

HUMAN OVERPOPULATION MAKES
EVERYTHING

WORSE WORLDWIDE

In my world travels, I witnessed the 80 million added
babies annually to this overburdened planet.
Actually, 57 million humans die annually, but another 57 million babies
replace them and a net gain of another 80 million babies add to the burden of
the planet, which Catton calls “Overshoot”. Or, it’s what those added 80 million do to
the planet as they begin their rapacious consumption habits.

“America has preened itself for three decades on the
wizardry of its technologists,” said Udall, “Myths die hard! Evidence of our overshoot accumulates daily.
President Carter discovered it is not easy to take a country conditioned to
believe that every problem has a technical solution and to persuade its
citizens that a major change of orientation has become necessary.”

Catton talks about our robust expansion at the
expense of our environment and all other living creatures in the forms of
plants and animals. Worse, our
expansion remains mindless while the other creatures cannot defend themselves
against our onslaught. Did you watch the
movie, “Avatar”? Those large-eyed
“human” creatures beat back technology with their wits and flying creatures,
but that’s make-believe in the movies.
No aborigines on this planet could defend against one tribe’s dominance
of organized violence whether it showed up as Spaniards in Mexico and South
America or Europeans in North America and Australia. The Chinese took over their continent and
India overwhelmed its landmass. Today,
hundreds of animals in India and China live on the brink of their final days.

“In
an underdeveloped country, don't drink the water; in a developed country, don't
breathe the air.” Changing Times Magazine

“On the banks
of the Volga in 1921, a refugee community was visited by an American newspaper
reporter who had come to write about the Russian famine,” said Catton. “Almost
half the people in this community were already dead of starvation. The death rate was rising. In an adjacent
field, a lone soldier guarded a huge mound of sacks full of grain. The American newsman asked the leader of the
community why his people did not overpower this one guard, take the grain and
relieve their hunger. The old Russian
explained the sacks contained the seed to be planted for the next growing
season. “We do not steal from the
future,” he said.

“Today, mankind is locked into stealing ravenously
from the future. That is what this book is about. It’s not about famine or
hunger. Famine in the modern world must
be read as one of the several symptoms reflecting a deeper malady in the human
condition—namely, diachronic competition, a relationship whereby contemporary
well-being is achieved at the expense of our descendents. [The federal $13
trillion debt brings to mind an example of undermining future generations on a
financial level.]

“By our sheer numbers, by the state of our
technological development, and by being oblivious to differences between a
method that achieved lasting increments of human carrying capacity, and one
that achieves only temporary supplements, we have made satisfaction of today’s
human aspirations dependent upon massive deprivation for posterity.”

At this point in 2010, we continually ‘evade’ our
dilemma because we can get away with it.
For example, when Lewis and Clark journeyed through the west on their
epic expedition—the Indians that helped them survive, didn’t know it at the
time, but their freedom, food and way of life would die within 100 years—all
500 tribes would not survive the European invasion. They remain enslaved on reservations today in
2010. Result: loss of languages,
religion, culture and way of life! They suffer diseases, obesity, internal
violence, alcoholism and meaninglessness.

Today, with another 100 million people being added
to the United States within 25 years, everything will change for
Americans. Unless, of course, they take
matters into their own hands and change course. That’s the reason for this
series!

Part 40: Overshoot with new ideas for new conditions

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In a five minute astoundingly simple yet brilliant video, “Immigration, Poverty, and Gum Balls”,
Roy Beck, director of www.numbersusa.ORG,
graphically illustrates the impact of overpopulation. Take five minutes
to see for yourself:

If any of us, no matter what our race, creed or color might
be, refuse to engage our U.S. Congress as we have not for 30 years as to the population/immigration
equation-our children will find themselves living in a terribly degraded
America where the American Dream will be described by the history books as a
'fleeting fantasy' from the era of 1950 to 2010.

These are several of the top organizations where you can
take collective action to change the course of American history as well as in
Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Take collective action at:

This is the best website to start: www.numbersusa.com ; watch Roy Beck’s
“Immigration by the Numbers” at 14 minutes. Bi-partisan and very effective.
Become a faxer of pre-written letters to your reps to make positive
change.

Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents - from
the Arctic to the South Pole - as well as six times across the USA, coast to
coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway
to Athens, Greece. He presents "The Coming Population Crisis in America:
and what you can do about it" to civic clubs, church groups, high schools
and colleges. He works to bring about sensible world population balance at www.frostywooldridge.com
He is the author of: America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million
Americans. Copies available: 1 888 280 7715